u.s. congress votes to pull the economy from the brink of sliding back into recession by approving a bill that prevents the country going over the fiscal cliff. and mass conversion to islam and the u.k.'s official religion facing extinction some experts question whether it's time for britain to become a secular state. and with a shaky cease fire with israel in place palestinian farmers in gaza have moved from land to route hoping for a safer place to grow their projects nearer the front line.

welcome to r.t.m. arena joshie the us house of representatives has approved a controversial bill designed to prevent the country from potentially sliding back into recession the fiscal cliff deal passed earlier by the senate will prevent nationwide tax hikes and spending cuts from coming into force at least for the time being the house republicans wanted to man the bill but then decided they didn't have enough support to make last minute changes to the motion a tug of war over the text revolved around a democrat promoted increase in income tax for the rich for the first time in two decades but alice lawrence freeman says that in the long run this bill will make life any easier for millions of struggling americans here. in many ways this whole operation i have been a manipulation. and

a farce to work over the minds of the american population the great there is no nothing in the book old world that any way shape or form will actually help the economy what we're seeing right now a government twenty seven million people unemployed and missing for a way to get forty nine point seven million people live we already have tens of millions of people going through bread lines to get their food and so this question of the big global economy and the wealth of the population is not a good little or nothing it's going to be resolved we're going to aggressively to change the whole by means of with them so that with the goal separation of the banks now will lead them to death obama is delivering nothing good for the american people says it will accomplish that much that you raise a few but then when taxes on wealthy people i don't find that the states and seem credible get packed. but they both mean the question is what kind of credit are you

going to make available from best new infrastructure in jobs with energy and rebuilding new york new jersey the providing people with jobs so they can bring home the money that you made their family those are the crucial question that hand in hand for the british monarchy the church of england has been a symbol of the u.k. for centuries and while the church still enjoys man a unique political and financial privileges its current state of last and secure as are his folly boyko finds out. one of the most religiously diverse nations in the world with one official state religion to some it's a paradox i think any institute any faith institution like the church of england is going to have some potential threats on the horizon and those threats on the horizon are basically around its relevance to communities in general other faiths are significantly growing in their not only population but their voice in

a social and political level so it's really important to have a plurality of opinion rather than just focus on one institution as being reflective of the nation yet the national church has twenty six years on the elected members in the house of lords the upper house of britain's parliament and it enjoys financial privileges courtesy of the u.k. taxpayer by the church's own admission the number of people coming through the doors of this and every other church in england has hard over the past forty years a very strong report even warns that in the longer term the established religion faces fading away to virtual envelopment twenty anglican churches just like this one being closed down for worship each year entrepreneurial property developers a snapping them up and converting them to luxury housing or even light clubs while the number of church goers in the u.k. continues to fall some one hundred thousand britons have converted to islam over

the past decade three quarters of those white women as you know broaden my knowledge about islam and compared it with christianity i must tell you i found it more logical you know it just resonates with me i like what the prince of wales but he wants to be if ever he becomes king he wants to be the leader of faith you know of all faiths that i think is a wonderful statement because certainly our society here in britain is very multi-core. very multi-faith so everybody should be included while other faiths enjoy popularity the church of england recent rejection of women bishops and disapproval of gay marriage has reignited the age old debate on the separation of church and state people feel alienated if they're not part of that church and so few people are because only two percent go to church on a normal sunday so that's why we must i think make sure the church

is disestablished and the twenty six bishops that vote in the house of lords the only country in the world to have a parliament where they have the right to do that should be extinguished britain now has one of the lowest rates of church attendance in europe there is a rule. in terms of religious opinions there is and that will grow and that future may actually become wider as time goes on and so i guess what we have today is is the church effectively being relevant to certain parts of this country despite centuries of tradition some question what will be left of the church of england in fifty years time though the statistics are very clear very clear almost disappeared with something i think the twenty fifty figures are one hundred thousand people in the pews on an average sunday out of

a population of sixty million that's miniscule but the privileges and political influence afforded to it are far from trivial and that's what's fuelling the calls of those who say that it's fairer to separate the church from the state party boy r t london. ireland has taken on the six month presidency of the european council marking forty years of its e.u. membership prime minister enda kenny has pledged to bring the republic's vast experience of coping with financial difficulties to the table while focusing on it use economic recovery analyst robert oulds earlier told my colleague carrie johnson may prove to be a tough task for the celtic tiger one of the key challenges facing many countries in europe is of course the economic difficulties. is of course rigidly sticking to the austerity drive which the european union wants which it mandating arlan to do

it's effectively running its budget policies in many different areas amount of money that it can be can spend to deal with the deficit but of course arlen's medicine that they're taking and partly suffering from but they're getting on with it isn't really vied for the rest of europe so if they're going to be driving for with the agenda in the european union for the next six months that's not the. economic problems let me ask you this i mean after this coming year twenty thirty you know the e.u. has come up with something called the european year of citizens to be highlight the rights people have because they're in the e.u. what do you make of that one of the key words that people should have is a via to elect their own governments and for that to actually make a real difference but of course with the european union power has become too centralized amongst the institutions in brussels and that just takes away power from ordinary citizens so the european union can tell us why it's that we have but of course we don't actually have the violet to make

a real difference to the elections because far too many decisions now are made at the supranational level major decisions being made in brussels away from the citizens whether they be the citizens of britain or spain or greece for that matter ok but what you are going to be restored but were there any success stories in twenty twelve it must have been something when after all the countries predicted to have collapsed by now are still surviving. well course unemployment continues to go up for the states within the euro zone that's very alarming and their economic problems will not be resolved until of course it's recognized the you. see is the sea for these countries we need to have a rolling back of powers away from brussels to all the different member states and of course britain should of course have a referendum on membership as well. but it needs to be recognised that the european union is of course failing economically so it still is still there it still exists

but the process of people applying is of course no economic growth and of course massive unemployment which is now we've seen a lot and proportions for many different eurozone states while some have the airline we have in the firing line others have their own lives prospects in limbo. it's a disease that i understand can kill you. in just a few minutes we find out how some veterans of the nine hundred sixty sexual revolution in california deal with the threat of hepatitis c. and why health officials there are bringing alarm bells over it. plus rich pickings from rooftop farms people in gaza start growing food on top of their houses in israel security tight around the strip all that after a short break stay with us.

it's technology innovation all the developments from around russia we. have. more news today. again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing appreciation to rule the day. a good week over the winter olympics are there still some. choose to consider. the great.

choose the stories that impact. you access to. welcome back you're watching r.t. live from moscow now with is really easing restrictions to allow building materials into gaza the nation's blockade of the strip still affects those who live there one group bearing the brunt of the restriction are farmers many of whom had to leave their land in the buffer zones to grow food on rooftops but as policy or now reports with the recent assault on gaza still fresh in the memory some fear they may not see their or next harvest. there's not a lot of greenery in gaza at least not in the places you'd expect to find it like her thumbs farm which since the israel gaza war four years ago has laid barren and deserted again and emerged the year again or had a very nice plantation

a lot of visitors came to see it also students from the farming school used to come and study at my place. but rockets from israel raining down on one of the most densely populated spots on earth meant i will have needed to find another place where he could grow his crops and so he looked towards his own home and upwards that. i needed no alternative so i made this plantation on the roof and started working again. creates a lot of things if he has time and energy i can make fifty thousand suppling from these meters on the roof. it's an idea that's taken root in farms along the gaza israel border where much of the agriculture has been repeatedly destroyed by the israeli army many farmers are unable to access the land because of the buffer zone that's one of at least a third of gaza's farmland your. today there is no

space to have a farm in gaza it is very crowded everybody is building new houses where i stand now used to be a plantation for oranges and lemons and if you look at it now you just see buildings. fall out of five people in gaza are dependent on food aid homegrown food projects like rooftop gardens can help combat malnutrition and severe poverty by allowing farmers to sell their produce marry anyone can do it i work with my husband and my daughters till midnight is that half a lot of farming should be on the ground but we heard that we can plant in volcanic rock on our roofs so i tried it. farmers grow wheat barley and a variety of fruits and nuts on these rooftops they also raise rabbits and chickens showing how the little ingenuity can go a long way ask anyone in israel of gaza whether they think the situation is stable and they'll tell you it's only a matter of time before the next israel gaza showdown they might be

a ceasefire in place between the two sides but no one believes it will hold least of all the gaza farm is always the first in the line of fire. on the israel gaza border. now is take a look at some other stories from around the world in syria fresh findings being reported between loyalists and rebels in the second city of aleppo and in the capital aleppo international airport is under a military while insurgent positions in the suburbs of damascus are reportedly being shelled this comes after anti-government activists claim dozens of bodies bearing signs of torture were discovered in the capital it's not clear who's responsible for the alleged atrocity the violence continues despite a stark warning from the top international peace and void syria says the country faces a choice of political process or help. and authorities and the ivory coast have declared three days of mourning aster

a stampede during new year's celebrations claimed the lives of over sixty people the tragedy occurred when a large crowd was leaving a city stadium after a fireworks show a similar incident happened in goa during new year's festivities leaving ten dad and one hundred twenty injured. four people have been killed and dozens wounded after an explosion in a crowded area of pakistan southern city of karachi police say the bomb was planted on a motorbike and did a native when a political rally of the city's dominant party passed by no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the liberal party but police suspected militants might have targeted the rally prior to upcoming general elections. as well as leader as is conscious following a cancer operation in cuba that's according to the country's vice president nicolas maduro however stressed the president's condition remains delicate it was earlier reported that travis was suffering complications caused by respiratory infection

under the constitution the socialist president is due to be sworn in for a third term in january to tamp. it down to the silent killer health officials in the u.s. are calling for all baby boomers to be checked for hepatitis c. a disease that's becoming increasingly prevalent for the age group as the in a caution of reports fifty years on many in california are paying a high price for their summer of love. california and the sunshine state once the center of the hippie revolution a melting pot of music rock spouse actual freedom we did drugs that we didn't think about there was no process because everybody was doing it dean made chill is a baby boomer born during the pos to world war two years nineteen forty six and

nine hundred sixty five his generation now is paying for that lifestyle a life of things drugs and rock'n'roll all fueled by flower power and the summer of love they say few remember the sixty's you were intrigued there the baby boomers out of the sexual revolution may have lost some of their memories cindy had the mists of time but there is one legacy of their past which is anything but harmless and the centers for disease control has already named him patatas c s n and recognized health crisis according to their granny station car and he won in thirty baby boomers are infectious with the virus the silent killer it can lie dormant for decades that's what happened to dean mitchell's friend who died just two months after being diagnosed with the disease they're paying for the car consequences because they are now so. they have to get medication. and it's a disease that i understand can kill you but worst of all it's not just baby

boomers who are trysts many could have a knowing if you contract the virus through blood transfusions the screening was all improved during the aids crisis in the ninety's californian's bay area has been the hardest hit with more people dying here than anywhere else in the country it is also a very costly problem for the bankrupt state costing billions of dollars last year the number of people. who are going to have with. it there are four core issues in a certain system who are working personal and start to. finish following this caring for more widespread than h i v happy tide is seeing kills around twelve thousand people in the us after

a year and with the baby boomers in the highest risk group the center for disease control has called for mass screening they say they could identify almost a million people now living with the disease and saves may need more lives but the question remains if the present generation will listen to the question archie reporting from los angeles california. and on our website following the brutal gang rape that should delhi to the core hundreds of indian women apply for firearm licenses and join self-defense classes. record reveals a number of japanese nuclear plants are ill equipped to deal with fire threatening to send back their reactivation of the country's nuclear stations by year's balanda r.t. dot com to find out more. now space has fascinated generations as a scientific mystery but have you ever considered going into orbit for your next holiday

while it appears manic people have an early year are to talk to eric anderson a space entrepreneur about the part that private orbital travel has played in space exploration the full interview is on air at six forty five pm g.m.t. but here's a quick preview. these tourism honestly is not a great word for what these people do when they participate as private citizens going to the space station every single one of them who's flown with space adventures to the space station has had an in-depth scientific program whether it was material science or biological experiments or whatever it was they have participated they have paid their own way of course they have used themselves as part of the scientific community that many of them have gone to space with less than perfect health and have been great examples of how for example laser surgery

on your eyes is affected by space flight they all want to participate in this they are participating and the fact of the matter is quite honestly when private citizens go to the space station a lot more people hear about the space station than otherwise it's just one of those things that they captures the public's attention part of nasa is mission is to encourage to the maximum extent possible the commercial use of space and in fact showing that there's a market showing that there are people willing to do this and showing that you don't have to be a career military fighter pilot the right stuff kind of person that plays a huge role and i think that's exactly the sort of thing that ends up helping the space agencies of the world as well. russian politics are kremlin returned for vladimir putin and fresh anti-government protests in two thousand and twelve although in numbers smaller than the year before are just political analyst watch developments in the heart of the rallies

and he told my colleagues kevin i want to add an isa now we earlier how he sees the protest mood in russia panning out i would say it's kind of bleak but not hopeless ok we didn't come up with any new ideas new organization new faces and if pussy riot is that we are of the opposition that's a pretty dreadful situation for the russian people and political development in general here and there was political change in this country and a positive change does make up the opposition as we head into the it's a very interesting question because i have gone to most of the major demonstrations and there were people there of goodwill in my opinion but then there were fascists there ok who were communists there and they were these are people they're ok and it's your right to demonstrate i also for the actually like the idea but they didn't accomplish anything that i could see they have no organization no unifying ideas except for i don't like but a mere putin which is not a very it's not a political agenda there were

a few protests which i was out as well where it did seem like that was the method if you wanted to gain traction on this opposition movement do you see. a lot of it's novelty effect right now ok because political change takes years in the years and years that have to be local this is what happens in political changes with countries that were what they were carrying at one time it takes a long time to get people involved in the process and that is happening very very strongly there are some people that want to really fast and they don't want to do it through elections they want power because they want power because they believe they deserve it and what about the fact that we're not going to see any presidential elections of course that all lead up to being elected a third term this protest and now they're kind of down to what i would say to people i mean if you want to continue to protest but you know join a political party there are forty four of them now you have a choice ok get involved see one of the things i saw with a lot of the protesters is that they want someone else to do all the hard work they

want to go out and wave a flag and say you know give out a slogan we don't want to do the hard nitty gritty work of political change and that's what they need to do. well peter lavelle has been dissecting russian and global politics in his cross talk series throughout the past twelve months and has plenty of editions of the show for you to watch on demand and coming your way relive the two thousand and twelve grand of the world conversely with our special report apocalypse now in just a couple of minutes. it sounds like a dragon crashing through the forest but it is in fact technology this is trees and would you believe it this machine can file and strip hundreds of them each day get a widget when building this facility we wanted to use advanced technology that would increase efficiency and allow us not to use manual labor also this provides

for better quality goods as a result we were able to conquer western markets the demand for corrina birchwood is high since our production line is quite efficient where i would want to hide wages to our employees the trunks and up here where that turned into planks which branch off for all manner of uses these would expats a march but not to a bit of gold. given the museum island of traditional methods they used to build and maintain churches and dwellings dating back hundreds of years various pay invests whole what careers used to want riches bought ceasefires to complexity these planks are about to become part of something which exemplifies the combination of tradition and technology. but they are the valley and old viking but makers what is fashioned into their souls new and old they range from small private boats to replicas used in the historical t.v.

series of border where my boots are all special they're like children sue me. we have to design and build them from scratch it's always sad when we have to part ways every time the sail away while we remain at the dark and puddle gets much of his timber from karelia same customers pine for its high quality wood. which brings us up to the first six million cubic metres of wood is cut down in careers forests every year that goes to make everything from farmhouses to firewood and with growing is proximity to europe and the baltic it's big forests big business.

than. one afternoon on the shores of the ocean blue. one of those days when it feels good to be alive on the planet earth. carefree humanity. maybe unthinking humanity even . a few kilometers away a man has given us an appointment on a mountain summit. a place in keeping with what anatole calls his work. he's been devoting all his time and energy to it for the last six years now. this former computer expert even quit his job to get ready for it for the end of the world.

and the work i do will take me out of body i will ask to meet those. superior beings who hold the keys for humanity already clear that he went to talk to them. to see what can be done for two thousand and twelve. by telepathic trick to get him into contact with mysterious superior beings beings who have announced to him the destruction of the planet on december the twenty first two thousand and twelve very precisely. it will be by fire volcanoes earthquakes and most importantly of course by water floods as the plates will shift rise and lower the ocean bottom will lift and what will appear is atlantis when that lantus rises out of the waters that there will be when the world ends she office two thousand and twelve is a giant plan for i could.